Prosecutors say Jesse Mae Pollard used girl as leverage

A federal jury has convicted Jesse Mae Brown Pollard of kidnapping a 6-year-old relative to pressure the girl's mother in a dispute over a piece of land and a portable storage shed in east Mississippi.

The jury on Thursday convicted Pollard, a former teacher and basketball coach, of conspiracy, kidnapping and obstruction in U.S. District Court in Jackson.

The child was taken from East Kemper Elementary School in the Kemper County community of Scooba on April 30 and dropped off unharmed in the rain near a stranger's mobile home the next day. By that time, prosecutors say the FBI was closing in on those they suspected in the case.

Prosecutors argued Pollard planned the abduction and wanted to use the girl "as leverage" to get her property back.